


Bunraku

by Vhaenya



Category: Dororo (Anime 2019), 鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Anime), 鬼滅の刃 | Kimetsu no Yaiba (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Gen, Giyuu is Hyakkimaru, Hashibira Inosuke Being Hashibira Inosuke, Inosuke is Nine Years Old, One Shot, Set in the Taisho Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:07:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24143320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vhaenya/pseuds/Vhaenya
Summary: “Well, since I’m your mentor now, you can call me the Great Inosuke! Since you don’t wanna tell me your name, I’ll give you a totally new name!” Inosuke nods to himself. He has a faint memory of his mother and her friend taking him to those plays with the creepy life sized dolls. Those dolls remind Inosuke of the stranger in front of him and he can’t help but to cackle as he points a finger at the man.“Your new name is now Bunraku!”-In which a young boy befriends a man cursed to be a doll.
Relationships: Hashibira Inosuke & Tomioka Giyuu
Kudos: 50





	Bunraku

Wooden fingers curl into a fist, their joints clacking together softly. A figure stands over the cliff, shrouded in a thick blanket of white mist that swirls all around him. Midnight black hair flies around his face, licking at his face. A mechanical arm reaches up and pushes the hair away from his unseeing eyes. Glassy sapphire shines brightly like a doll’s polished eye. Sweet twittering of morning songbirds fall on deaf ears as the young man stands as still as a statue. Even the crisp morning wind has no effect against porcelain skin. 

In the distance, there’s a shock of a bright and ugly crimson. While blind to the physical world around him, he’s guided with only the ability to see the colors of the souls around him. Giyuu lives a quiet life surrounded by the soft vibrant greens of plant life and the occasional whisper of white from those who he passes on the road. When that cloud of crimson lights up the darkness, Giyuu’s mechanical hand tightens around the grip of the nichirin at his side. 

Without any room for pondering or doubt, Giyuu begins his journey towards the red twisting mass in the distance. 

-

A small boy with a mess of black and blue hair shouts with glee as he bustles through the forest. His small frame allows him to duck and weave around the low hanging branches and twisting roots with ease. Behind him, he can hear the loud cursing of his pursuers as they crash around with all of the grace of a local drunkard. 

He lets out a cackle, knowing that the bandits won’t ever be able to catch up to him. He’s Inosuke, king of the mountain. They’re in his domain and they couldn’t even dream about catching him. He knows the forest like the back of his hand, besides, even if they did have a chance of catching him- his heightened sense of touch would alert him. He’d be gone, like a ghost flickering out of sight before they could capture him. 

He continues to sprint through his forest. Through the underbrush, Inosuke sees a small family of boars watching him. He gives them a wide grin and ducks under a branch, taking a hard right turn down a path used by the animals that share his forest. Running down a steep hill, Inosuke almost loses his balance and his arms are waving around in an attempt to keep himself from falling.

Behind him, he hears the men. One of them trips and falls down the hill, crashing into him and they fall down the rest of the hill. Inosuke manages to untangle himself and jumps away from the dazed man. The soles of his feet splash into the cold creek water, toes digging into the muddy silt. 

“Stop running, you little brat.” One of the bandits growl as the rest of the group makes their way to the bank of the creek. Inosuke puffs out his chest and thumps it with a small fist.

“Watch who you call a brat, you old fart! I’m Inosuke, king of this mountain!” Inosuke is hardly past his ninth spring and his voice is shrill but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to take on a group of bandits. “I can take all of you on with a hand tied behind my back! I’m the strongest to ever live!” 

The bandit that had crashed into him, staggers up to his feet and gives Inosuke a steely glare. Inosuke watches as the man unsheathes his sword and stalks towards him. Inosuke picks up a rock and hurls it at the man. Right when the rock hits the man, Inosuke lets out a cry of victory when the bandit falls backwards with a cry. Inosuke falls silent as a massive figure falls from the sky. 

It stands taller than any man Inosuke had ever seen in his short life and through the long knotted mess of white hair, he sees a twisted and macabre version of a spider’s head in place of a human’s. In a swift movement, the demon crushes the man under two fists before turning its attention to the other four bandits. 

Anger takes the place of fear in Inosuke’s heart. This is his home and this gross spider monster dares to invade it? Not on his watch. 

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Inosuke shouts, picking up another rock just as the spider demon throws the last bandit against a tree with enough force to make the tree snap. “This is my home you dumb looking spider!”

The demon turns to face him, its maw opening to show off rows black fangs and drool that streams off from the fangs. It lets out a deafening roar and begins to charge towards Inosuke. Hurtling another rock at the demon, the back of Inosuke’s neck prickles and a shadow flies overhead. With a flash of bright blue, the spider screeches and viscous purple liquid oozes out from a cut.

Landing silently in front of Inosuke, he gapes at the stranger before him. The young man’s back is to Inosuke so all he can see is a mess of black hair pulled back into a half attempted ponytail. Inosuke judges the tacky haori the man is wearing. Why the strange mix of solid maroon on the right side and a busy pattern of yellow and green on the left is well beyond any explanation for Inosuke. 

The man stands motionless as the spider demon lets out another roar and charges towards them once again. In a flash of clashing colors, the man jumps up. Inosuke watches with wide eyes as the stranger deftly twists in the air with ease. The stranger doesn’t have the element of surprise on his side and the demon snatches him from the air. Inosuke ducks in time to avoid the sword that the spider demon had ripped from the man and threw towards him. 

Inosuke darts towards the sword. Picking it up, he finds it strange that the grip of the sword is cold as if the man hadn’t been holding it. Turning around, the sword instantly clatters back into the creek when he sees the stranger grab his left forearm and rips it off, the forearm flips through the air and lands to Inosuke’s left. His mouth falls open as the arm’s landing splashes ice cold water against his legs. Time seems to come to a screeching halt as Inosuke realizes that the arm was a prosthetic and the man had been running around with a secret sword.

A brilliant gleam of blue shines through where the man’s bone is supposed to be. Glancing back, Inosuke can only watch in amazement as the man lunges his sword through the head of the demon. With a final cry, it falls to the ground in a heap of disjointed limbs. 

Inosuke picks up both the sword and discarded prosthetic. Making his way back towards the back a millions questions seems to flood his mind. There’s so much that he wants to talk about with this mysterious man that Inosuke’s mind can’t even keep up with the flooding of endless questions. 

As he approaches the stranger, Inosuke waves the prosthetic with reckless abandon. He can hear the joints of the wooden arm clack softly but that doesn’t stop Inosuke. 

“That was so cool!” He shouts, stopping right in front of the young man. Inosuke tilts his head and blinks in confusion. Getting his first good look, he sees that the man is wearing a mask. Pale and smooth porcelain is only ruined by the dark purple blood from the demon. Blue eyes stare blankly to the ground without any sort of emotion or hint that the man can even see. Inosuke makes a face when he realizes that the man hasn’t even blinked yet. 

He turns his attention from the man’s strange face and to the light blue sword that juts from the man’s elbow. It’s shorter than the sword that the demon had thrown, Inosuke figures it would have to be shorter so he could hide the blade within his prosthetic without looking weird…. Weirder than he already looks. 

Inosuke is immune to any awkwardness and starts his barrage of questions for the man. When his questions are left unanswered, he feels a flame of vexation ignite in his heart. Not only is this man still unmoving but now he’s ignoring Inosuke’s great questions? The nerve of this man! Inosuke waves the man’s arm in front of his face to get his attention.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” The man is too tall for Inosuke to properly get into his space so Inosuke stands on his toes. Losing his balance, the prosthetic hits the man across the face. A loud slap cuts through the air and the man finally moves, looking down to Inosuke. He watches with wide eyes as the man raises his arm, the blade gleaming in the evening light. Inosuke is about to launch into an attack but the stranger simply holds out the arm. After a second, Inosuke understands the silent request and slowly attaches the arm back into place. 

“You’re weird.” He states, listening to the click of the joint locking back in place. “But, you’re super strong so I guess it’s okay if you’re weird.” Inosuke steps back and the man moves again, curling the wooden fingers and then uncurling them.

“I guess you’d have to be strong.” Inosuke studies the silent man. He hums to himself and rubs his chin. “But you’re not as strong as me! Tell ya what, it looks like you still have a lot to learn. Lucky for you, I’ll take you under my wing!” 

He’s now walking around in circles around the man. There’s something so off putting about the stranger. Perhaps it’s because of the mask he’s wearing or the unseeing eyes, or maybe even the fact that he’s running around with a hidden sword in his arm. To be honest, Inosuke’s mind is still blown from that last tidbit. 

“Well, since I’m your mentor now, you can call me the Great Inosuke! Since you don’t wanna tell me your name, I’ll give you a totally new name!” Inosuke nods to himself. He has a faint memory of his mother and her friend taking him to those plays with the creepy life sized dolls. Those dolls remind Inosuke of the stranger in front of him and he can’t help but to cackle as he points a finger at the man.

“Your new name is now Bunraku!” Inosuke starts to march back up from the creek. When he doesn’t hear Bunraku following him, Inosuke marches back to his new disciple and grabs hold of Bunraku’s hand.

“C’mon, Renroku! Get a move on!”

**Author's Note:**

> I got bullied into watching Dororo and my immediate decision was to write a short crossover to distract myself from the pain.   
> I might make an actual multichapter fic of a kny/dororo crossover in the future... This was mostly me just dipping my toes into the world of crossovers lol.   
> That's all for now.  
> Comments are always welcome and you can find me [here on Tumblr](https://vhaenya.tumblr.com)


End file.
